THE K-12 ALLIANCE OF MICHIGAN RESPONDS TO GOVERNOR WHITMER’S BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS

In response to Governor Whitmer’s Executive Budget Recommendations released today, Alan Latosz, President of The K-12 Alliance of Michigan and Superintendent of the Algonac Community School District, released the following statement.

“We appreciate that Governor Whitmer has put a budget on the table to start the critically important work of crafting a final budget for the next school year. To be clear, Michigan schools cannot afford a repeat of last year’s budget debacle that forced our schools to begin the current school year without a budget and unable to plan appropriately for the important work that supports our students. We hope, and need, everyone involved in this process to ensure the budget gets done on-time this year, by the July 1st deadline.

We applaud and share the goals Governor Whitmer has outlined in this budget as it recognizes the importance of continuing progress toward a true weighted funding formula for at-risk students, English language learning and other critically important programs, as recommended by the School Finance Research Collaborative back in 2018 and championed by The K-12 Alliance since day one.

As with any budget, however, we have concerns as well. Once again, this budget shifts record amounts of funding out of the School Aid Fund, funding that taxpayers expect to be spent within their local schools, to be spent elsewhere, while providing a small increase in our per-pupil foundation funding that doesn’t even match the inflationary increases in costs our schools face.

We hope that as this budget process continues, we can work together to find ways to make Michigan’s public schools a priority again and ensure that every dollar that’s meant for our classrooms ends up there. It’s what taxpayers expect and what our kids deserve.”